You can not imagine it, the sightings of pumas are multiplying

A popular Central Coast urban hiking destination was closed over the weekend amid numerous mountain lion sightings.

Today, California wildlife experts say the string of recent encounters represents only a fraction of the animals’ current activity. Cougars use the wilderness area that borders the densely populated San Luis Obispo Corridor and the 101 Freeway as a full-fledged travel route to travel to less densely populated areas or seek food or water.

And it could be indicative of the careful movement of animals through the state’s many interface zones between urban and wilderness areas.

“The cougars here have fairly large areas, but their habitat is fragmented by urbanization,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Ken Paglia told SFGATE. “But often it goes from one patch of suitable habitat to another patch of suitable habitat – that’s why we now see neighborhoods and the urban fringes of communities running through them.”

This Feb. 9, 2015, photo released by the National Park Service, taken from a remote camera in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, near the Los Angeles and Ventura county line, shows a female mountain lioness identified as P-33. She is one of many cougars seen in and near urbanized areas of greater Los Angeles.

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In the Bay Area, a mountain lion wandered around San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood in 2021, followed by another sighting at a school in Daly City in 2022. There are so many recent sightings that the Bay Area Puma Project, in partnership with UC Santa Cruz and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, has an active card with places where cougars have been spotted in recent weeks.

The epicenter of recent Central Coast sightings is Cerro San Luis, a modest peak better known to locals as Madonna Mountain. The landmark rises 1,292 feet above sea level, offers miles of trails for beginners and intermediate hikers, and commanding views of downtown San Luis Obispo, the vineyards of Edna Valley to the southeast and the Pacific Ocean to the northwest.

This Monday, March 26, 2018, an aerial image taken from video provided by KABC-7 shows a mountain lion rushing from one residential home to another in the community of Azusa in eastern Los Angeles County, California near the wilderness of the San Gabriel Mountains.

This Monday, March 26, 2018, an aerial image taken from video provided by KABC-7 shows a mountain lion rushing from one residential home to another in the community of Azusa in eastern Los Angeles County, California near the wilderness of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Air Live 7/AP

Those familiar with the area’s most famous roadside attraction, the iconic mid-century Madonna Inn, will recognize the hill’s nickname, that of the eponymous family who still own and graze horses and cattle on a strip low mountain pastoral today.

The popular destination is easily accessible by foot or bike from downtown San Luis Obispo. Office workers are known to take a long lunch break for the summit. And mountain bikers in the area can’t wait for the first rain of the season to turn the earth to sticky mud and smooth granite surfaces.

But over the weekend, the popular hike was closed due to multiple reports of mountain lions in the area, the city said.

“It’s unusual for us to close a trail, but it’s not unusual for us to receive so many sightings in such a short time,” said Bob Hill, the city’s sustainability and natural resources manager, at the San Luis Obispo Tribune. “Some of the sightings took place during the day and at dusk.”

By Monday afternoon, the San Luis Obispo Parks and Recreation Ranger Service had reopened the trails to visitors. On social networks, the the agency advises users to “stay very alert, keep your dogs on a leash and stay on designated trails when hiking Cerro San Luis”.

Cerro San Luis, a small peak just across the 101 freeway in San Luis Obispo, displays a warning after a recent mountain lion sighting.  Open spaces adjacent to the city in California have had a high number of sightings and encounters this year.

Cerro San Luis, a small peak just across the 101 freeway in San Luis Obispo, displays a warning after a recent mountain lion sighting. Open spaces adjacent to the city in California have had a high number of sightings and encounters this year.

Photo by Andrew Pridgen

A sign posted at the trailhead gazebo looks like a wanted sign from yesteryear, with an image of a mountain lion at the top, and the date of last sighting (September 25) written in black Sharpie. The notice contains some advisory points in the event of a meeting:

-Do not hike, bike or jog alone.
– Do not squat or bend over.
– Don’t run away from the animal.
-Don’t go near it.
– Pick up and hold small children.
-If there is encounter, face the animal, make noise and look bigger. Throw stones or other objects.



If the full parking lot adjacent to the Recreation Area’s Higuera Street trailhead was any indicator, visitors returned to the trails with vigor.

“I’ve lived here for five years and I remember my roommate saying she saw one, but I’m not sure she was right,” Cal Poly graduate student Mary Steele told SFGATE. at the end of his mid-afternoon hike. “I know there have always been mountain lions around. During the day and in the afternoon, you won’t really see them. But it’s just crazy to think that we’re here in the middle of town and forcing them to use this space too.

“It’s not an active concern, but you know they’re out there.”

Signs are posted on the Borrego Canyon Trail at the entrance to Whiting Ranch in Foothill Ranch, CA.  Game wardens trapped a mountain lion on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, which was spotted several times at Whiting Ranch.

Signs are posted on the Borrego Canyon Trail at the entrance to Whiting Ranch in Foothill Ranch, CA. Game wardens trapped a mountain lion on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, which was spotted several times at Whiting Ranch.

Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag

Steele’s intuition is correct. Cougars prefer to prowl at dawn, dusk and at night. They can roam a radius of up to 200 square miles in search of prey. Above all, they want nothing to do with humans.

But if you actually see a mountain lion, wildlife experts warn it’s probably too late.

“The lions see us all the time,” Doug Updike, then the state’s mountain lion coordinator for fish and wildlife, told the San Francisco Examiner in 2008. “They’re well camouflaged and shy, it’s not easy to spot them…and usually we look them straight in the eye and never see them.

Last week’s sightings in San Luis Obispo weren’t the only mountain lion activity in the area. On Monday, September 26, a 7-year-old boy was attacked by a puma at Pico Canyon Park near Santa Clarita – a suburb bordering the Angeles National Forest about 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

This undated photo released by the National Park Service shows the adult female puma P-65.

This undated photo released by the National Park Service shows the adult female puma P-65.

PA

The boy and his father were walking up a flight of stairs in the park at dusk when a mountain lion jumped out of the brush and bit the boy on the buttocks. The father said he charged at the big cat, which let go of the boy and disappeared into the bushes. The boy was treated at a nearby hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

The unprovoked attack was an anomaly. In 110 years of cougar logging activity in California, only 20 confirmed attacks have occurred—none having been recorded between 1910 and 1986. Since 1986, there have been 22 confirmed cougar attacks in California; three were fatal.

Instead, it was the human inhabitants of California who were the aggressors. California paid out more than half a million dollars in bounties for 12,461 cougars, decimating the population for the sport from 1907 to 1963, the The Los Angeles Times reported.

Animal welfare began in 1990 with the passage of Proposition 117. The law places cougars under protected status, which means that permits to kill the animals can only be issued if the animal mutilates livestock or threatens or kill a person.

This undated remote camera image shows a mountain lioness known as P-53 roaming the Santa Monica Mountains, California.

This undated remote camera image shows a mountain lioness known as P-53 roaming the Santa Monica Mountains, California.

PA

Thanks in part to Prop. 117, the number of cougars in California has increased. Today the population here is estimated between 4,000 and 6,000 cats. But wildlife experts believe there is still a long way to go to protect the species that once roamed these hills in the tens of thousands. A 2019 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity proposes listing cougars as a candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act.

If approved, the animals would be protected in a designated area known as the Evolutionarily Significant Unit in Southern California and the Central Coast. Their population is also protected during the review period.

In the decades since we changed our perspective from species destruction to protection, some cougars have become celebrities in their own right. In Los Angeles County, a male mountain lion known as P-22 roams the Hollywood Hills. Like anyone who occupies a certain stratum of pop culture, he has his own ugly Christmas sweater and unauthorized biography.

A close up of a California cougar.  Despite the urban advance on the territory of animals, their population has increased over the last two decades thanks to protective measures.

A close up of a California cougar. Despite the urban advance on the territory of animals, their population has increased over the last two decades thanks to protective measures.

Stefanie Byrd / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

P-22 and its lesser-known cohort may have an even better chance of survival once a $90 million wildlife crossing is completed in an area where the the animals were slaughtered attempting to cross one of the busiest sections of Highway 101 close to.

“These observations highlight the need for connectivity, due to urbanization there is evidence of genetic admixture in cougars,” concluded Paglia, spokesperson for Fish and Wildlife. “They don’t have a ton of space, and that can affect them.

“It doesn’t have to be a bridge or an entire passage. Educate. Respect their boundaries and their habitat.

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